Synopsis

In a deadly terrorist attack, Arashi Mikami narrowly escapes death but loses everything in the process, including his family and best friend. However, the surgeon that rescues him is far from just an ordinary doctor—he commands a strike team known as Black Label whose task is to exterminate deadly criminals who have fallen too far. Filled with a new determination, Arashi joins the ranks of the vigilante organization.

Black Label's targets are aplenty, as evil scum lurks everywhere—dangerous arms dealers, corrupt politicians, and shady gangsters all find themselves hunted by the extermination team. Although haunted by their dark and sinister past, all of the hunters are highly skilled at slaying their targets. In spite of the perilous lives the members live, Arashi and the gorgeous ladies surrounding him still manage to get caught up in a variety of sultry moments and racy hijinks. Though they face strong opposition, nothing can stop Black Label's objective of cleansing the world of ghastly evil.

I've stated in the past that a lot could be gathered from a show's 1st episode, but it's rare that I come across cases where the very 1st opening scene sums up the anime just as well. Not even a full second into Triage X and the 1st thing the audience is greeted with are melon-size oppai. With that being said, leave any sense of decency you may have at the front door, and revert back to your hormone-filled pubescent days because Tri-hard X is as brazen as it gets.

GUNS!!!.. BOOBS!!!.. EXPLOSIONS!!!.., annnnnd
MORE BOOBS!!!

Let's face it; there are only two reasons for anyone to watch this:
#1, for the "plot"
#2, for the "plot"

But as far as the actual content goes, there's very little here worth discussing. This is an anime that exists solely as a container for boobs and action. Any plot points brought up that gives hints towards a character or narrative arc goes nowhere. From the mysterious inner-workings of the various organizations that the viewer is made aware of to the straightforward overarching narrative that contained it, all of it was merely brushed over. Mini-arc formats that began with no buildup and ended with no solid conclusion. Outside of being an advertisement for the manga and all the "plot" it may contain, Triage couldn't be bothered with the trivial matter of "caring." But man cannot live off boobs alone, so in substitution for a story, the show gives us chicken scratch that vaguely passes as one.

This chicken scratch was manifested with our protagonist, Arashi Mikami, as we find out that he's a part of a band of assassins that kill off members of society that they deem unworthy. With the help of a few armed titties with legs and his weapon of choice, they take on several assignments where they're tasked with cleaning house, leaving no grunt unscathed and no boob untouched. Wait, boobs and assassins? Is this Akame Ga Kill 2.0? All shit talking aside, the show could have done a lot more with the material than what it aimed for. No, I wasn't expecting much, to begin with, but they made no effort in hiding the fact that it was only there to boost sales and intrigue for the source material. The anime did very little to stand on its own, and it reflected profoundly on its drab presentation. The most we get are hints towards something brewing just below the surface; hints that ultimately panned out to the creators saying "Just go buy and read the manga already." This was marked off with an underwhelming ending that even the show's protagonist seems to be aware of, as the closing lines delivered by him felt like the studio's way of saying they simply didn't give a fuck:
"No. Nothing's been resolved."
They just went about finishing it without a proper resolution or care in the world, giving the audience narrative blue-balls in the process. Everything was just left up in the air, like the Freeze frame ending of an 80s movie. To give you an idea, it's like if I stopped writing this paragraph mid-senten

The art/animation was relatively simplistic, which is a shame since I thought it was the perfect material to push boob physics even further. Although there was nothing overtly offensive about the production, there was also nothing impressive about it either. It was just the bare minimum needed to get by, almost cynically pushed off an assembly line with the paint still wet.

And just like the animation, the soundtrack was equally generic, with your usual J-rock opening and OST that does nothing to stand out. Every musical cue felt incredibly phoned-in. The music fits the show in the same way every tween TV drama has your typical strum of an acoustic guitar hanging in the background. And as your eyes glaze over from watching GUNS, BOOBS, EXPLOSIONS, the soundtrack is just there, chiming along in the most unassertive way imaginable.

But enough of that, time to cover the wonderful people we follow throughout Try-hard X's episode run.

I'm hesitant to even refer to this cast as "characters," honestly speaking, there's only one actual person in the entire show. The rest is bodypillow models in the making. Our main protagonist, Arashi Mikami, is as stoic as they get, in other words, he has as much personality as a brick wall. With a brooding personality stuck in angst hell and dialogue equally as stiff, every moment he's on screen, I could just feel a bit of my soul being sucked out.

The rest of the cast can be summed up with a simple formula: archetype + boobs

They're all busty females with one predominant personality quirk, so basically, well-endowed smurfs. The only "development" they get are the ones hanging from their chest. Of course, this is only a bad thing if you were expecting more, but if you just came into this for dumb action and TNA, then this character lineup is godsent.
The antagonists were all overblown manchildren. It helped add to the campy nature the show unintentionally stumbled in. Also, none of them were afraid of groping a few sweater puppies either, so expect a lot of fun "boob-play" sessions.

GUNS, BOOBS & EXPLOSIONS; a tried and true formula

While Triage X was flawed on every level imaginable, it still managed to keep me entertained. I was brought to a time in my youth where sex and violence were all it took to appease me. It was certainly good schlock entertainment at times and if nothing else, kept my interest long enough before abandoning ship.

If you're simply looking for an easy-to-consume time-waster along the lines of a brainless blockbuster, then Triage X should fit the bill. And while it plays out well in that sleazy entertainment realm that it shamelessly occupies, you'll be hard-pressed to find anything else here. It's a show that focuses more on the "plot" than it does the plot and is very much aware of its ploy. The lower you set your bar, both in terms of standards and maturity, the better, as Triage X is wholly satisfied with its awarded consolation prize of being lowbrow smut.

"I wanted to see if all human beings had a conscience. When they realize that their evil deeds have brought them death, do they feel regret?"

(This review, nor this series is nothing so pretentious)

Preface:

Ah, Triage X. Heralded as "that" anime that crops up every season, promising huge bra sizes and more swinging breasts and panty shots than you can shake a stick at- Triage X does that and more. In more than one way, it's the spiritual successor to the long pined after season 2 of High School of the Dead, and in its own way ends up being something else entirely. It's kind
of the Rugrats: All Grown Up version of HOTD, if you will.

Before I start reviewing, let it suffice to say that nobody went into Triage X looking for an emotionally moving, intellectual, character driven plot... No, it's just dumb fun.

Let's get into it, shall we?

(Note: I'm going to break out the fanservice scale again for this one.)

Artwork and Animation: 7 {Fanservice: 10 Bouncing Boobs out of 10}

I hadn't seen anything by Xebec before, but I have to say that it looked just fine. The bloody gunshots, dismemberments, stabs, rips, gouges, beatings, and many other wounds were appropriately juicy. There are currently censors on the versions that are available to watch now, but I assume it will be filled to the brim with giant breasts and butt shots when the home video release comes out. Truly bringing Shoji Sato's vision of the perfect look to life.

Nothing really to complain about here. One standout though, and that's Fuyuka Ooura as Dr. Yuko Sagiri. Also the voice of Miyo Takano, she really brings the chilling, dangerous element to the voice part here.
The opening and ending songs are solid J Rock stuff, and the insert songs are mostly hard rock that fit the action, and string sections for more serious parts.

Okay, let's be real. These characters' backstories, aside from Hitsugi and Arashi, are NOT explored. In the grand scheme of the show, does it really matter? This show about action girls with implausibly large chests being super badass and not takin' no shit. It's not a character drama, it just needs some people in there that you can watch rip shit up.

This is high action at its best. Ultraviolent at times (Execution style headshot with a crossbow into a burning warehouse, YEAH!). Ultrasexual at others (Bath scene while discussing torture methods- shout out to Higurashi!). They even got the Mad Max (and more recently 'cool' in Walking Dead) *cuffed to something, throws a hack saw* "You can saw through your arm faster than you can get through those handcuffs, if you want to get away". (Lampshaded, too- for good measure)

Overall, full of cool action scenes taken straight out of famous movies- bike chases, crashing through windows, biological weapons, torture, huge shootouts, explosions, skyscrapers- it's a giant mashup of action cliché where everything is over exaggerated. This is the essence of Shoji Sato.

Triage X does actually have a functional episodic plot, objectively speaking. I don't know if you've seen Dexter, the Showtime series, but Mr. Sato ripped the plot off, adding a medical theme and some hot chicks instead of a psychopath who shoots 3s (except for Yvonne Strahovski).

It's that coupled with a late night titty movie with action girls, except in TV form. It's a 10 episode version of those lovably bad B movies that come on really late at night that you watch drunk or when you can't sleep.
This isn't prime time TV, this isn't movie theater stuff. It's a bargain bin item in that sketchy, dark corner of the video store with the stained carpet under that blinky light.

(If you don't know- Dexter is about a forensic investigator who moonlights as a serial killer of people he believes escaped justice).

I can't convince anyone else that it's lovable schlock and not utter ecchi harem garbage, but it's in fact the B movie kind of schlocky! (B is for "best"). However, if you fux with High School of the Dead, you probably like Shoji Sato's work, and it's the perfect schlock. I think Shoji Sato is a secret genius.

I also think Triage X and HOTD are both great for what they are- giving these hardcore ecchi fans what they want, no matter how vehemently they deny it! People want ambiguously underage girls with huge boobs shooting stuff up, along with a blank slate main male character who gets all the Tang to project themselves onto.

It's true.

Look at the state of the anime industry today- As I said above, there's always that anime, (or several of them) that does nothing but pander to its sexually repressed audience. Shoji Sato knows his audience, and he is laughing all the way to the bank.

Wrap-up and Recommendation:

If you like High School of the Dead and are looking for even bigger action and boobs (Yuko has a 43.7 inch band size, holy impossible two headed cow!) you have come to the right place. There's just enough story to keep it moving onto bigger and badder set pieces, and is really the only anime this season I've been excited to watch every week. Call me a weirdo, masochist, whatever.

As a friend once told me, "If you eat fancy steak every night, sometimes you just want to eat a greasy hamburger." Triage X is a big, greasy anime hamburger.

Where should I begin with this mess of a series?
Well seeing as the creators thought the most important part of the series was the female characters breasts I will start there.

The male character designs are OK, no real issues. Then you see the female characters and they all have breasts that are ridiculously huge. They look like they are painful to carry around. I'm watching an anime series where breasts are making me feel sick and I'm just in disbelief at how horrendous it all is. This series tries so desperately to be sexy,
but ends up being as ugly as your mom. If you find the designs sexy then that's OK. I repeatedly felt uneasy looking at some of the images on screen; more on that later though.

So I have no issue with fan service. I've seen an anime where a 10 year old girl got cunnilingus from her sex slave and it didn't even phase me; that's what anime does to a guy. So even though that was a weird thing to watch, I didn't feel that disgusted by it, because the tone of the series wasn't serious. In Triage X every bad guy is a rapist. Almost every female character is dominated by a man at some point. Triage X is trying to be serious and that makes it so much worse. I'd pick out a scene as an example of its tone being a detriment to the series, but it's easier to point at it and say "all of it is wrong". People thought that this was worth creating. The series is as self aware as a piece of dog shit on the pavement, which is to say not at all self aware. Some people claim this series is meant to be fun. Well lets look at what "fun" the series has to offer.

The dictionary definition of fun: amusing, entertaining, or enjoyable.
Triage X's plot is primarily about people murdering rapists. How is this handled though? It shows a guy with sex slaves, he humiliates them then gets shot, repeat until end of series. So the creators of this series try their hardest to make sexy characters and then put them in situations where they are victims. Now I'm not saying the creators like watching fictional characters be sexually tortured, but they probably have a copy of Rapelay on their PC's.

I'm not going to say you are a bad person if you get off to this series. It's not as if there is a network of PC's connected through a series of cables where you can stream videos of women having sex. You have to make due with Triage X's creepy guys drugging women and fucking them in dimly lit areas. When there's such little choice for visual stimulation in the world I can see why this would be satisfying to some individuals.

Other than the gigantic breasts Triage X offers very little. The plot is uninspired, the characters are one-dimensional, and the animation and sound are average for this sort of thing. Overall I have to call this the worst anime that I have seen.

- Thank you for reading my review. You don't have to like my opinions, but I'll still love you regardless. <3

Big Boobed Babes. Every season has to have at least one show filled to the brim with these and it Triage X has probably taken the title for most big boobed girls in an anime. Now for the sake of the review I'm going to completely exclude all the boobs and other extreme fan service.

Story: 7/10
It was actually well.... interesting. An underground assassination group who got rid of the corrupt and other dangerous people in the city. However, it was only good as a concept because once it gets into the main story line it starts to become a jumbled mess. Having to figure
out who belongs to who what their job is and role just became a hassle and ends up taking away from viewing pleasure. Not talking about the boobs.

Characters: 3/10
Yea.... There's Arashi and Mikoto as the main duo who actually have pretty good chemistry together, though Mikoto starts to become a bit of a dispy girl in the end. And well theres no other way to describe them but big boobed pink hair, big boobed sword girl, big boobed nurse and that other big boobed girl who only says around 40 lines total. And then everyone else is basically pointless to try to remember. So as far as character development it can really only be either Arashi or Mikoto who receive some and good thing is they do, albeit brief.

Sound: 7/10
So the sound is fairly nice to listen to, a lot of hard rock songs constantly keep an nice upbeat "go fight em" attitude. The OP and ED were actually pretty good but personally whenever I saw parts of the ED I just kept thinking about all the road burn.....

Art: 8/10
Nothing special but it has its moments. Most of the bike scenes and other action scenes looked very well done and the CGI was blended in nicely.

Enjoyment: 6/10
It was a nice little anime to pass the time so I liked it, but I can't recommend it to anyone just because of the boobs.

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